The uncle I was forced to live with for the four years before joining up hadn't helped matters any. I think the fucker only took me in for the sole purpose of tormenting me for whatever slight he believed my parents guilty of. After dealing with his special brand of care after their passing and I was left at his mercy, I'd grown a new hard shell. That shit was titanium and nothing was ever getting through it again. I'd locked my heart off from ever feeling anything resembling love again. It took me years to realize that that was just anger and pain from my loss. After these fucks had sledge hammered my walls and wormed their way into my good graces it was a wrap. I laughed along with them and their silly arguments now, knowing that it was just their way of letting off steam and taking a load off from the hell we've been dealing with just lately. This too was something new I was learning to get used to. It was a side to them that I'd never seen before,

I'm afraid if something doesn't give soon, there will be hell to pay. And on that thought, I finally sat up and gave him an answer. "Nothing Dev, I just feel...off. Like that feeling you get before the other shoe drops." He clapped me on the shoulder and took a seat next to me. "You wanna go for a run?" Yeah, maybe some physical exercise might clear my head. Somehow I didn't think so though, and besides I didn't feel like leaving the grounds, not until I got a handle on things. Not until I was sure where the danger lay. "No, I don't want to leave the others unattended. I need to stay close to home today." That was the only thing I was sure of. Which only added to my unease. I couldn't see the threat, but I knew it was close to home. I won't leave them unprotected. My brothers had their attentions divided between ending the threat posed my the Desert Fox and their pregnant women. I can do no less than to stand guard over all of them. To stand between t

I was beginning to relax a little. The breeze from the water, the sun shining down in all its magnificent glory and Con talking shit next to me as we pounded the sand was working. It was good to feel the sea air on my face as we ran flat out. It had been a while since we'd come down here for anything other than a stake out. We had all this beauty right in our own backyard and hadn't really had the time to enjoy it before this shit fell on us. Most of my sisters had grown up here and this was a luxury they'd freely enjoyed in the past. Now because of their entanglements with my brothers they couldn't even step foot out their front door without an armed guard. It was getting to me so I can only imagine how the others felt, having to curtail their women's movements. And since the women's last attempt at mutiny I'm sure they won't be seeing outside again for a while. Hopefully this place Mancini was dragging us off to would allow them some freedom

Instead he pushed the paper plate closer with his boot. I fought my baser instinct to tell him to go fuck himself. Asshole! I reached my chained hand out and lifted the bread and whatever was in the middle of it to my lips still without acknowledging him. Leave him guessing. He might have the upper hand when it came to the physical right now, but I'm sure I could take this dolt in the thinking game with half my brain cells on idle. I took soft bites and spent an inordinate amount of time chewing. If I ate any faster I'd throw up and no way am I going to show any kind of weakness in front of this jackass. "Cat got your tongue girl? I know you can talk, I heard you scream. Or maybe that's the only way you know how to communicate." He knelt and reached out as if to touch me. Now here you'd be tempted to glower this asshole into oblivion... and I can't believe the things I'm thinking at a time like this. Instead of the bitch brow that I'm

After our run we went back to getting things together so we could leave. Each of us had a duty to perform to make sure that the compound was secure. It had been getting dark out when we decided to do a last walk through of the mansion and that's when Cord found a book with codes. Codes that only the seven of us, and the man who wrote them would understand. I took the book and moved to the secure computer with the others following behind. It was a bit of a shock to see the words as they unfolded on the screen. Not just the meaning, but it was like hearing from the old man again. Like he was reaching out from beyond the grave and the eight of us were going to work on this last job together. I knew my brothers felt pretty much the way I did, gut punched. The codes only left us with more questions than answers and now we were left wondering who the people the commander mentioned were. We were pretty sure the 'he' was the Desert Fox but had no clue who the 'she' tha